[AU | By invite only]
[Simon couldn't open his eyes. He just couldn't. If he opened his eyes, they'd realize he was there and they'd hurt him or kill him or do something terrible. So Simon sat in the hallway, arms wrapped tightly around his knees, eyes squeezed shut as tightly as he could manage, forehead resting against his knees.
All the bruises and cuts still ( Read more... )
All the bruises and cuts still ( Read more... )
Teppelin didn't get many visitors. Her father, Lorgenome, was very peculiar about who he let in and out of the castle after all. And every single one of them were beastmen.
Nia didn't have anything against the beastmen. She had grown up with them. They were her father's servants, his subjects, the people he ruled over. And many of them were very kind to her when the situation called for it. But during her years at Teppelin, she had always noticed how different the beastmen were from her. She had no tails, no fur, no fangs, no extra appendages of her own. Not like they did.
Nia was very aware she wasn't a beastman. But she had no idea what she was, in comparison to them. She didn't know why she was here-- or why they were here, or anything else. The beastmen filed in and out of the palace, always going places, always seeing things, while she was stuck inside, surrounded by nothing but walls and her father's servants and people who aided her ever need. Being the naturally curious girl that she was, she couldn't help but wonder... wonder to herself why things were like this. She had always wanted to ask her father-- but what would he say? He had never been a very open man.
And then suddenly, two days prior, this boy enters the palace. And Nia is aware he is not a beastman. In fact, he looked just like her...
Her curiosity piqued, she had watched him from afar for the past two days. And now, as he sat curled up in the hallway, she finally couldn't keep herself away any longer. With her royal cloak trailing behind her, curly blue hair pinned back with her flower hair clip, she approached the small boy. She didn't say anything at first as she watched him, head tilted curiously, hands linked behind her back.
And when she did speak, her voice was light and cheerful and oh so soothing]
Hello!
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Though her voice made him glance up, he only looked at her through one eye--the good one, and only enough so that he could see her. She would barely be able notice that one eye peeking out of the hair. In the last two days he'd learned to pretend you didn't notice them. Any of them--
The first time claws connected with his back, he couldn't help but stumble. Then he ran. He didn't care that he was bleeding or by the time he'd stopped he'd been completely lost (though he'd regretted that when his "guardian" had found out the trouble he caused finding a way back), and now the bandages covering most of his skin were a testament to how bad the wounds had been--
--but she looked human. Not almost human. Or mostly human. She looked... human. It had to be some kinda trick.]
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It was no matter. There was no way she could miss those bandages and bruised hands and blood-caked clothing. Whatever this young boy had been through, it had been rough. And a small amount of pity and worry blossomed in her stomach for him]
Are you lost? [She still sounded so innocently curious as she spoke. She didn't mean him any harm, after all. She merely wanted to know where he came from]
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He jerked back away from her, breathing heavily. No longer hiding behind his knees or hair, he pressed himself against the wall. There was pretend fierceness in his eyes, badly disguising pure terror. He tried to answer, but he realized his tongue was stuck to the top of his mouth and he had no desire to remove it.
Instead he just sat there, staring at her. His eyes were bloodshot (or at least one was, the other could barely open), and his lower lip was bloody and swollen. His chest was covered in bandages, brown from dried blood, and his jacket and shorts torn. One of the lenses of his goggles, hanging around his neck, was cracked and the core drill--he wouldn't let them take the core drill... his soul--was crooked.
His chest heaved with the pure effort to breathe alone, though each breath was shaky. He finally swallowed.] W-what do you want?
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Why was he so hurt? And what could she do about it? Her gaze dropped to the floor at his sudden outburst, but she sucked in a deep breath and gathered her resolve as she looked up at him again]
I wish to help you. [Another long pause] You are injured.
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"... help you." She smiled. She helped Simon into a better position (one where he wasn't all crumpled up like a discarded toy in this dark little cell of a room) and pushed the hair (stiff with blood and sweat) from his face. He didn't remember much. Coolness against his face (his skin was burning everything was on fire she made it feel so much better) and something in his mouth and the pain ebbing away to just a dull throbbing. She'd allowed him something he needed so desperately but couldn't find through the brightness of the pain--sleep.
Still wary of her, he dropped his defenses a little.]
W-what're you gonna do?
[Helping sometimes meant hurting him worse.]
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You are injured. [She repeated this again a bit firmly, though she still sounded curious and a little bit concerned]
You are injured. I wish to help you. [She knew there was a doctor... someone who helped her when she was sick on the other side of the palace. This boy, this strange boy who looked like her... she would take him there]
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... H-How?
[Wait, wait Simon back up. He picks up his defenses a bit.]
... W-who're you, a-anyway?
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I am Princess Nia Teppelin. [She introduces herself kindly with a small bow]
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Y-you're a--a princess?!
[His expression couldn't be any more horrified.]
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... yes, I am. Who are you?
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I-I'm nobody! G-go away!
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Please, do not be alarmed. I only wish to help... [and she might sound a bit offended. No one had ever treated her this way before]
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You are not like the others.
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O-of course not. I'm not a stupid beastman!
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